KIDS CORNER

ABOUT SENATOR BOXER

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer won election to the U.S. Senate in 1992 and was officially sworn in as a Senator in January 1993. She won re-election to the Senate in 1998.

Senator Boxer grew up in New York. She went to public schools in Brooklyn, including Wingate High School and Brooklyn College. She received her college degree in economics from Brooklyn College in 1962 and became a stockbroker on New York's famous Wall Street.

A few years later, Senator Boxer and her husband, Stewart Boxer, moved to Greenbrae, California in Marin County where she still lives today. She raised two children, worked as a reporter for a local newspaper and as a volunteer on local political campaigns.

In 1972, Senator Boxer ran her first campaign as a candidate for a position on the Marin County Board of Supervisors. She lost the election, but she did not give up. She decided to run again in 1976 and this time she won. Eventually, she became the first woman to be the President of the Marin County Board of Supervisors. In 1982, Senator Boxer ran for and won election to the U.S. House of Representatives. Ten years later, Senator Boxer and California's other Senator, Dianne Feinstein, were both elected to the U.S. Senate. They made history by becoming California's first two women Senators and the first two women to ever represent any state at the same time in the Senate.

As a U.S. Senator, one of Senator Boxer's main responsibilities is to vote on bills in Congress. For example, Senator Boxer has voted a bill to give more money to schools to fix leaking roofs, replace broken lights, and make other repairs and a bill to require that guns be sold with child safety locks. Senator Boxer can also write bills. In 1997, for example, she wrote a bill to encourage businesses to donate computer equipment to schools. Her bill became law and she has visited dozens of California schools to help businesses make their donations. Some of Senator Boxer's top priorities are education, crime, the environment, and health care.

Senator Boxer enjoys spending time with her family, which includes her husband, her two children who are now adults, and her four year-old grandson named Zachary.

WHAT DOES SENATOR BOXER THINK...

If you would like more information about any of these or other issues, please visit the Issues page.

What does Senator Boxer think about education?
Senator Boxer firmly believes that a good education is the key to success. She attended public schools from kindergarten through college, and thinks that every kid should have the opportunity to attend high-quality public schools. Some of the ideas that Senator Boxer supports to improve schools are:

• Making more money available to schools to fix leaking roofs, replace broken lights, and make other badly needed repairs to schools.
• Increasing the number of after-school programs that are available to give kids more things to do after the bell rings. Some successful after-school programs in California provide help with homework, give kids an opportunity to work on computers, or organize sports, games, and other fun things to do.
• Helping schools establish safety hotlines so that students, parents, or faculty can anonymously report information about potentially dangerous students or situations at their school.

What does Senator Boxer think about crime?
Senator Boxer thinks that sensible gun control and more police in neighborhoods are two things that will help make our streets and neighborhoods safer. In 1994, she voted in favor of a major crime bill that put 100,000 new community police on America's streets. Since the crime bill became law, the California crime rate has dropped by 20 percent. Senator Boxer has written and supported a number of bills that would help reduce gun violence, including a bill that would require child safety locks to be sold with every handgun.

What does Senator Boxer think about our environment?
Senator Boxer thinks that it is very important to have clean water to drink, clean air to breathe, and safe food to eat. The government sets environmental standards to help make sure that water, air, and food are clean and safe, but did you know that those standards are currently set to protect adults? Because kids are smaller than adults and because they are still growing, they are much more sensitive to pollution. Senator Boxer has written a bill called the Children's Environmental Protection Act, which would reset environmental standards at levels that are safe for kids.